Everyone, I think this a topic that we can build on nicely. Musicology and history are two of the things capable of being discussed on the topic of znamenny vs. alternative chants in the Slavic Churches. May I please ask you to accept the invitation, and contribute something to this thread?

In IC XCSamer

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Hypo-Ortho

Everyone, I think this a topic that we can build on nicely. Musicology and history are two of the things capable of being discussed on the topic of znamenny vs. alternative chants in the Slavic Churches. May I please ask you to accept the invitation, and contribute something to this thread?

In IC XCSamer

Samer, I would if I could. But honestly, even though I sing in my parish choir, there is little I know about znamenny chant other than the fact that it's very old.

In my parish we use Kievan, Obikhod, Plain, Greek, Moscow and Zadonskoye chants mainly. The choir director is an elderly and very pious Orthodox woman from Ukraine. We usually use what music is given us in the three hard-cover Divine Liturgy books and the hard-cover Vespers book published by the OCA in English for choirs. We augment this occasionally with music from liturgical texts in Old Slavonic, which I still have difficulty in reading.

One can purchase from Concilar Press a CD of Znamenny chant from Valaam Monastery.

I had never heard a style quite like it. Compared to the Russian chants I have heard, it is much simpler and shall we say more tranquil and condusive to the meditation required in monasticism. It has an ison, which brings it closer to its Byzantine roots.

Much preferrable over the polyphonic chants that too often feature a major key, which doesn't appeal to someone more attuned to Arabic and Greek Byzantine style of chant.

I notice the same difference between today's Serbian chants and medieval monastic Serbian chants. Is there a name for the latter?

Hypo-Ortho

One can purchase from Concilar Press a CD of Znamenny chant from Valaam Monastery.

I had never heard a style quite like it. Compared to the Russian chants I have heard, it is much simpler and shall we say more tranquil and condusive to the meditation required in monasticism. It has an ison, which brings it closer to its Byzantine roots.

Much preferrable over the polyphonic chants that too often feature a major key, which doesn't appeal to someone more attuned to Arabic and Greek Byzantine style of chant.

I notice the same difference between today's Serbian chants and medieval monastic Serbian chants. Is there a name for the latter?

In IC XCSamer

Oh, don't get me wrong, Samer. I have *heard* Znamenny chant. It's just that I've never belonged to a choir which has sung it, except exceedingly rarely. Znamenny notation is completely different from Western notation. Unless transcribed to Western notation, I doubt that you'll find a choir, other than in old monasteries in Russia where it has been kept alive as a "living tradition" in its original form, where Znamenny is sung with any regularity. It has become, other than in monasteries, a "specialized" chant for musicologists with an historical interest, but not really used much in parishes.

The Dogmaticons in Znammeny Chant arranged by Kastalsky are particularly nice. Does anyone with musical background know what kind of style of harmony that is? I am talking about the two-part arrangement.

Also, the chant of the K(ievo)P(echerskaya)L(avra) is very nice, although ver repetative in its harmonies -- which makes it easier to sing.

The Dogmaticons in Znammeny Chant arranged by Kastalsky are particularly nice. Does anyone with musical background know what kind of style of harmony that is? I am talking about the two-part arrangement.

Also, the chant of the K(ievo)P(echerskaya)L(avra) is very nice, although ver repetative in its harmonies -- which makes it easier to sing.

That's all I've got to say.

Kastalsky was pretty important in bringing Znammeny chant back into the Russian church. Prior to him, Znammeny was primarily based on 4 part monophony. However, Kastalsky changed this and introduced polyphonic rearrangements of the chants that were once monophonic.

In listening to a recording I had, it sounds like a diatonic type harmonic that Kastalsky uses primarily.

I can explain diatonic scales further if you want, but it will take a bit, so let me know if you want me to